A meeting of elected members of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar unanimously chose Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its legislative party chief on Wednesday. The Janata Dal (United) leader will be sworn in as chief minister again on Thursday.
Grand arrangements are reportedly underway at Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan for the oath-taking ceremony on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other Union ministers and senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are expected to attend the event.
Nitish will be sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for a record tenth time on Thursday, making him the longest-serving chief minister of the state. Earlier in the day, the legislative party of Janata Dal (United) elected him as their leader. "Nitish Kumar addressed all the party leaders who attended the meeting and asked them to work tirelessly for the welfare of the state", JD(U) leader Shrawon Kumar said.
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The JD(U) chief is expected to meet Governor Arif Mohammed Khan soon and initiate the process for formation of the Bihar government. Nitish will submit his resignation on Wednesday, and also a letter of support from NDA constituents.
Meanwhile, the legislature party of the BJP chose Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha as its leader and deputy leader, respectively.
While the Opposition Mahagathbandhan banked on anti-incumbency, the JD(U)-BJP-led alliance won the recently concluded Bihar assembly polls with a record majority. The alliance won 202 seats in the 243-member assembly, with BJP bagging 89, JD(U) 85, LJP(RV) 19, HAM 5 and RLM 4. The Opposition was reduced to a mere 35 seats. |
